Minor Prophets LXV: Backstabbing Dirtbags

The ethical and moral conditions of Micah's days were deplorable and are vividly outlined in Micah 7:1-7 and lamented over in rather bleak outburst from Micah. You know you’re in trouble when a chapter opens with a cry of distress and misery. In the case of Micah 7 it only goes downhill from here. He is the one that gathers fruit at the cutting time and there is not fruit to cut. Oops! No grapes, no figs that he craves. Any faithful that were in the land have been swept from it. There is no upright man in the land, not one. Not only are there no upright men there are only those who lie in wait to shed other’s blood and hunt one another. What a sick bunch.

What is missing from this society is the things of God, piety. The fruit that Micah says her misses in the first verses are moral and social compassion and rectitude. Honesty and the things you would expect from a people(s) of God have gone AWOL. Instead the people of Micah’s days are “skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire” the best of them “is a brier” which is to say they are like thorny thickets that entrap prey or small animals, for humans they are irritating nuisances.

At the midpoint of these verses we see a hint of the chaos to come. God will visit them and “Now is the time of your confusion.” It will get so bad that neighbor will not trust neighbor nor will they be able to. Neither will they trust their own friends. Even in intimate relationships or relationships with “the woman who lies in your embrace”, people will need to watch what they say. Children rat out their parents as family members become enemies of one another. This kind of sounds like our day and age.

Micah though believes in and holds out hope for the Lord. He waits for his Savior and trusts in the fact that God will hear this powerful but saddening lament.